Sometimes You Kick, Sometimes You Get Kicked

I had two experiences with the California Division of Motor Vehicles today.  Somewhat conveniently and somewhat inconveniently, my vehicle registration as well as my Alaska driver's liscence expire within a few days of each other.  Yes, it's true, I've been bumming around the State of California with an Alaska Driver's license for months longer than I should have.  I went to the smog check place, which was a positive experience.  Like Alaska, in California, the smog checkers are privately operated garages or lube shops around town, so you don't need to go to a central DEQ station and wait in a long line of barely-going-to-pass-cars like I became accustomed to in Oregon.  What's also nice about these garages, is that generally the person who's testing your vehicle is either a mechanic or a mechanic's apprentice and they could tell you exactly what you would need to do if your car doesn't pass.  Luckily, I timed my visit right to where I was in and out in about 15 minutes with a passing test.  Off to the DMV. 

I walked in and told the guy that I was there to do two things, I needed to renew my vehicle registration and take my test to get my California Driver's Liscense.  He shook his head at me.  The first thing he did was pointed to a sign next to the reception counter that said that ON TIME vehicle registration needed to be done by mail or by internet, meaning that only if you have let your plates expire and are a slacker, you can fill out a form and pay them money.  A few months ago, I got a letter from the DMV with instructions on how to renew online or mail in a check, but I had no idea where that letter would be.  I went to the website and it required a 6-digit number that was on the renewal notice and required in order to renew.  So I figured I would take a form and fill everything out on it and have to mail a check to Sacto to get lost in a stack of papers somewhere...

So I figured I'd take my test, get an ugly picture taken and be on my way with a license.  He shook his head again.  He asked me if I had a birth certificate or a passport.  To which I replied that I didn't and I figured he must have misunderstood me, so I took out my Alaska license and said that I have a license and only need to get a California license.  He said that I needed to have a birth certificate or passport, regardless.  This was much different from my experience moving to Alaska.  When I moved to Alaska, I knew the first two things I needed to do were to register to vote and get a driver's license.  Establishing residency in Alaska is a much bigger deal that you might imagine.  When I wanted an Alaska driver's license, they grabbed my Oregon license out of my hand and had me take a 10 question test (I may be exaggerating on the number of questions, but I couldn't exagerate on the simplicity of the process) and I was on my way with an ugly picture.  

So I ordered a birth certificate from the State of Oregon ($15 + $5 shipping) and it will get here in somewhere around 10-14 days.  I guess that might be the difference in a border state that borders Mexico rather than a border state that borders Canada.  The woman who supervises my department at my assignment said that I probably wouldn't have any problem if I were blonde with blue eyes.  I don't know about that, but I know I wasn't happy with the hassle.

I dug through some boxes at home and managed to find the letter from the DMV, it was in a box of Windows XP/Dell CD's from when my hard drive crapped out.  I went to the website and entered the magic 6-digit number and it couldn't have been easier.  The smog check shop electronically sends a record of my vehicle passing, so it was already there that my emissions had been checked so all I had to do was pay them the $50 fee and they'll send me stickers within 5 days.  How cool is that?  

So I take the good, I take the bad, I take them both and there you have...the facts of the DMV. 

New Music Tuesday

Kind of a bust of a New Music Tuesday...unless you have been jonesing for the Paris Hilton album.  iTunes does have some great new releases today though, that are well worth checking out.

KT Tunstall - Previously Unreleased EP

M. Ward - Post-War

Yeah Yeah Yeah's iTunes Session

Catie Curtis - Long Night Moon

On another note, next Tuesday sees the release of a new Bob Dylan album, a new Pete Yorn album and Ray Lamontagne's new album.

Album of the Week

So far so good on the Live Writer test drive.  This is a great way to put together a post!  I highly recommend it.  Now if only there was something this easy that would put templates together...

 

This week's Album of the Week is simple.  We're talking 2004.  I remember hearing one of Ray Lamontagne's songs while on vacation during Christmas of 04.  I'm pretty sure it was "Trouble," because that song was quite popular at the time.  It was new to me, though.  I was living in Anchorage at the time and radio up there is quite limited on introducing people to new things.  Lots of Clearchannel influence and not a lot of creativity.  Even to this day the album still stands up with the best of them.  I'm excited to hear the next chapter from Ray.  His first single is out and it's different than Trouble, but good nonetheless. 

And to give you some flavor, here's a sample to download...it's not on Trouble, but it's a cover of Gnarls Barkley's CRAZY.

Buy Trouble

Buy "Three More Days"

Test Driving Window Live Writer

I'm testing out Windows Live Writer to see if it makes sense to use.  I also have a beta version of Office 07 that I'm gonna give a test drive.  If I have anything useful to share from these experiences, I'll be sure to let you know. 

MK is not in Daily Motion

Bon Jour. Daily Motion is a french youtube ripoff, as far as I can tell, and I've been getting more and more traffic everyday from all over the world for people Googleing Daily Motion and getting my blog. I welcome your visit, Daily Motion visitors, but I'm sorry I don't have any videos of puppies chasing toys. Au Revoir.

With Special Guest...

I went and saw Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals play last night at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. I've always been impressed with two things about Ben Harper.

1. His guitar playing.
2. His songwriting.

Both things were showcased last night. The thrill of the evening though, was Harper saying, "I want to bring a very special guest out here..." I thought for sure it would be Damian Marley who opened the night (and joined BHIC for his father's "Get Up, Stand Up" later in the evening), but instead he says these three words...

"Mister Carlos Santana" the place went ape. And the next twenty minutes were more licks than a Ben and Jerry's giveaway. I was pretty much in awe of both guys going back and forth with each "punch" doing more and more damage until finally, Carlos tears the skin off the faces of most of the audience and Ben Harper puts his hands up in surrender. Pretty amazing.

Picture HERE.

A note on Damian Marley; I don't know much about Rastafarians because my exposure has always been mostly with Trustafarians, so I'm gonna do a little research. I didn't mind the music, per se, and the crowd was easily frenzied, and it struck me as being as authentic as it could be, I'm just not sure what they (Damian Marley and the crowd collectively) are fighting for. Or maybe it was that I couldn't understand a word in any of the songs or of his speeches, other than the token Bob Marley covers.

In looking for some pictures on flickr from last weeks Death Cab show, I stumbled upon BagelRadio, pretty cool stuff for Bay Area music. Here's the Death Cab event.

Upcoming: The Supply and Demand of...

I have a plan for the Supply and Demand of Lists. That plan is going to take more time to work itself out. So, in the meantime, I will bring up a topic in the meantime. The next Supply and Demand podcast will be built around...baseball. Submit your ideas for baseball songs via email to mkinmotion[at]gmail[dot]com.

New Music Tuesday: Quick Listen!

Quick, do yourself a favor and get the new Carrie Rodriguez album and you can say you had it before it hit big.

Seven Angels on a Bicycle

You've got to be fast though...

That Obscure Circe's Smile Reference

"It comes and it goes..." That's all I can remember from that song, but you have to be impressed I could come up with that much 12 years later.

What comes and goes? The flow of this thing we call blogging. This is my official warning that I am going to be posting in a rather shotgunish fashion, so to keep up, you'll have to use that scroll wheel on your mouse and not just read the first post. Here comes a splatter of things that came to mind over the last few days.

Blogger is beta testing a new format. In order to test it out, I had to create a new blog, I'm gonna play with it and see if it truly makes a difference.

I watched Capote and enjoyed it. Made me want to read To Kill a Mockingbird again...or watch the movie.

My aunt (who is one of my most loyal readers) and my mom are on a roadtrip up the west coast. My aunt lives in England and so this is a great opportunity to spend precious time together but also see people and places they haven't seen for a while. It makes me wish I were following them around with a video camera documenting their interactions with family and friends.

The Mad Fishicist asked me what a podcast is and I although I answered him with a short answer, I intend to spend a little more time explaining it on here in the near future. I've been saying for several months that I want to start one, and although I have to a certain extent with The Supply and Demand podcasts, my intention is to go in a slightly different direction once I get my hands on some hardware.

I have a few questions for MK Q&A, but I haven't taken the time to type them out with responses. If you want to participate send them in via email (mkinmotion[at]gmail[dot]com. I'm getting a kick out of the randomness that you guys have come to use with these questions, it makes me feel that you might actually enjoy it as much as I do. Keep 'em coming.

Selling it like 80's Grunge

A note about the show I went to on Saturday night. As I mentioned, I hadn't been to the Greek Theater in Berkeley since 1997. That night in 97, I was with friends iRich and J-Nard. The playbill was Ben Folds Five opening for Counting Crows. I've always had a fondness for the venue but didn't know if I'd ever make it back. So when I saw the bill for Saturday night's show, I jumped at the opportunity.
Mates of State opened the show. There has to be some serious pressure to open a 3 band show in a venue like that. I was really excited about seeing Mates of State. I've enjoyed their music, but the only other time I'd seen them live was in 110 degree (well, it was 110 in the shade and there was no shade to be found) Austin last September. My partner in crime and I were both just sitting on the grass (if you could call it that) trying not to think about the heat and not absorbing the music. The weather in Berkeley is much more cooperative for an outdoor show regardless of shade. Let me just say that Mates of State were AMAZING! There is so much energy and passion and reckless abandon in their music that you can't help but buy what they are selling. I couldn't help but think of the NW music scene in the early to mid nineties when Grunge music was the norm. One of the things that made grunge music so different and inviting was that the singers sang at the top of their lungs and all the musicians played their instruments as loud as they could. So if you're unfamiliar with Mates of State, imagine if grunge had hit in the 80's. So much sound, so much melody, harmony and greatness coming from two people, it's incredible. They kicked the show off with "So Many Ways" and didn't hold back. Kori Gardner was selling it and by the end of their set I wasn't alone in wishing they could keep playing. I thought about posting some samples of their music for you, but instead I will direct you to their myspace page where you can preview some songs. They have "Fraud in the 80's" as one of their streamed songs, which happens to be one of my favorites. A few weeks ago I pleaded for some upbeat music to load my iPod with and although the few suggestions that I got were good, Mates of State came through and reminded me that fun music exists. And one of the greatest moments of the show was when Kori and Jason came out of the wings and joined the headliners for a song.
I've enjoyed some of Spoon's music, but I would never consider myself a big fan. Saturday night gave me an opportunity to remind myself of that. I think their music is pretty good, but after Mates of State blew my mind, it wasn't anything more than I expected. One flattering thing that I could say about Spoon is that they had a very odd resemblance to if the Clash had come from Austin, Texas...but not as good as the Clash, don't get me wrong.
The headliner was Death Cab...but also the part of the evening that I'd built up the most anxiety about. I was certain that I would be disappointed. I like their music, despite what other people might say, I think it's pretty brilliant. I had a hard time trying to explain to people what kind of music it is with much clarity, because their name might suggest something else. Not only did they not disappoint me, but they reminded me of how good they are. Ben Gibbard might be one of the great songwriters out there...he might also have the same barber as me. I haven't cut my hair since just a little before ACL last September and it looks like Ben hasn't kept up either (follow links for comparisons ganked from random flickr users; ACL vs. Greek). I once had a friend describe Death Cab as the chubby/sweaty band...they were definately sweaty, though from my vantage point, I wouldn't use the word chubby. Like I said they didn't disappoint and Mates of State joined them for a song. Overall I'd say it was a pretty amazing show. I'll be returning to the Greek Friday night for Ben Harper. I also have added Golden Smog to the Summer/Fall mkinmotion.com tour.

Buy Mates of State albums!!

Bring It Back
Our Constant Concern
Team Boo
My Solo Project

Buy Death Cab For Cutie albums!!

Transatlanticism
Plans
We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
You Can Play These Songs With Chords

Buy Spoon!

Gimme Fiction

Upcoming: The Supply and Demand of...

I'm working on putting together the next edition of The Supply and Demand podcast. The next edition will be the Supply and Demand of Lists. I'll feature songs that TMF has always referred to as list songs. If you have a list song that should be included, email me at MKinMotion[at]gmail[dot]com. Tonight I'm going to a Death Cab/Mates of State/Spoon show in Berkeley. I haven't seen a show at the Greek Theater since Counting Crows in 1997. All three bands were at ACL last year, though I don't remember seeing Spoon. Death Cab will get the kids dressed up as their favorite OC characters tonight.

One More Note About Syriana...

With the current events taking place in the middle east, Syriana is incredibly timely to watch now.

As is Munich. I watched it last night. I thought it was pretty good, 3 out of 5 stars, but it was engaging and compelling, just not amazing. But there's an introduction before the movie by Spielberg defending the movie, in which he says something to the effect that if Israel is attacked with violence, Israel will retaliate with violence. I think his statement and a lot of the themes of the movie fit right in with what is going on right now.

I've gotten some questions lately from people stopping by the blog. I'm going to put together a Q&A post, so if you've got a question for me, send it in via email (mkinmotion[at]gmail[dot]com) and I'll try to fit it into the post. Thanks for your questions, it's interesting to hear what you want to know.

How to Win an Oscar

Whenever I use the word visceral, people look at me funny. I may not have the college degree to prove it, but my vocabulary can keep up with most topics. The term visceral is a medical term for major organs in one's midsection. Somewhere along the line it got translated to meaning gut or instinct. So when I say that I had a visceral reaction to a song, a movie or even a Costco polish dog, it means I couldn't control my reaction. I can think of three times off the top of my head when I had a visceral reaction to a movie.

1) M. Night Shyamalan's Signs. When Joaquin Phoenix locks himself in the closet to watch the TV coverage and we see in plain daylight; not a shadow or a hand or glowing eyes in a dark corner, a stinkin' alien and Joaquin jumps back and I jump back everytime I watch the movie. Say what you will about Shyamalan's movies, but there's something pretty original in each one.

2) Speaking of M., the second time I can remember having a visceral reaction to a movie is in The Village. I liked the movie, I liked the concept...but what got me was the moment when Ivy is in the woods and the camera moves to reveal "the monster" is behind her. Oh my, I was watching the movie with headphones on my laptop in a dark room and I think I literally gasped.

3) The third movie moment that got me in my viscera was in Syriana.

I watch the Oscars every year. I make predictions, I have my favorites...but this past year I hadn't seen most of the movies up for awards. I still haven't seen some of them. When George Clooney won best supporting actor for his work in Syriana, I was happy for him, but like George himself, I was convinced it was a consolation prize for not winning best director. And then I saw the movie. You want to know how to win an Oscar? You Googled "How to Win an Oscar" and wound up here? Here's a lesson.

The lesson doesn't involve gaining weight, although you can't read much about George Clooney's Oscar without hearing about the weight he gained. But who couldn't pack on 30 pounds on purpose for money?

The lesson doesn't involve growing a beard. In the best supporting or best actor category, you'd expect even a normal amount of testosterone could produce enough facial hair to constitute a beard.

The lesson is in how George Clooney portrays a man being tortured. I'm pretty claustrophobic and would panic being bound and gagged. But to be strapped to a chair and have someone pull fingernails out of my fingers...I can't even imagine. And George Clooney won the Oscar for me in that moment. My visceral reaction wasn't a gag reflex for blood, but rather that defenseless feeling of not being able to fight back. Clooney pulled it off brilliantly. He successfully fought without being able to fight, and convinced me the viewer that he was doing his own stunt. I figure in my infinite wisdom of acting, that if you can pull of being tortured, you can pull of anything...including fingernails. Knock whatever you want about Clooney, but he's one of the only actors who can do action, the comedy, the drama and the dramedy and pull it all off. And to prove my point, I recommend you brush up on these titles.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Three Kings
Intolerable Cruelty
The Perfect Storm
The Peacemaker

and if you can find it,

Without Warning: Terror in the Tower
co-starring The Chindo

Just skip One Fine Day and Batman & Robin.

New Music Tuesday: The Road Less Taken

Although there may not be any gigantic new releases this week, I thought I'd take the time to highlight a couple of albums that you won't regret putting into your collection.

Many of you already own the Garden State soundtrack. It's a great mix of music and was put together by Zach Braff. Well he's up to it again with the Last Kiss Soundtrack. Some familiar names will pop up for Garden State Soundtrack fans with Coldplay, Cary Brothers and Imogen Heap this time without Frou Frou. But add Braff friend Joshua Radin to the mix as well as Snow Patrol and Amos Lee and you've got a pretty good mix. I had all but one of the songs on the compilation already, so I put them together and they make a fine playlist.

The Gin Blossoms release their first album since the 90's with Major Lodge Victory. As I've mentioned before, get past what your mind tells you about the Gin Blossoms and let your gut remind you that some of their songs are brilliant.

I'm gonna go out on a limb with two more albums. Nina Gordon (who whenever a song comes up in one of my playlists by her, it causes whoever's in the car to wonder why I've got Madonna on my iPod..if only they remembered Verucca Salt) releases Bleeding Heart Graffiti and Todd Snider builds great songs and his new release The Devil You Know promises to show off his craftsmanship.

Also available and worthy in the iTunes Music Store:

Pete Yorn's new single: For Us
Ray Lamontagne's new single: Three More Days
Imogen Heap live: iTunes Session

The Daily Snooze

With the news coming out of Alaska this weekend about the pipeline shutdown, I thought I would check in with an Alaskan opinion for some perspective. My experience with the Alaskan community and the oil industry led me to believe that it would be a shock to the state. In a world where a rising price of a barrel of crude is a good thing (tracked on the news daily like Doppler). But what do I find as the lead story on the brilliant homepage of the Anchorage Daily News? This puff piece. Nice journalism. The title of this post is what my old neighbor lovingly called the one newspaper in town. It's not as if I believe it was that funny of a thing to say, but coming from my Yugoslavian neighbor it got added to a list of hilarious isms he spilled out over the years. Maybe someday I'll post them as a list. Those of you who ever stopped by or stayed or heard stories know some of them were priceless.

On another note, via Netflix I finally watched a few movies. In addition to the previously mentioned Everything is Illuminated, I've watched Jarhead, Goodnight and Goodluck, The Motorcycle Diaries, The Weather Man, Shopgirl, Syriana and King Kong...plus a rewatch of Chasing Amy because it's been rather synchronous lately. I'm enjoying Netflix and I've enjoyed the movies. I'll follow up with some more in depth reviews when I've got a little more time. Coming up, the fourth Harry Potter movie, Capote, and Munich. I'll leave you with a timely quote from Syriana on the status of the world's oil supply:

"What are they thinking? They're thinking that it's running out. It's running out... and ninety percent of what's left is in the Middle East. This is a fight to the death."

Album of the Week: Back on Track

As many of you know, I used to, on a consistant basis, make a recomendation for an Album of the week on Sundays. It wasn't a new one, or one you'd never heard of, it was just a great album that deserved to be added to your iPod or tossed in your car. In an effort to get back on track with consistency in blogging, I offer you this weeks Album of the Week.


In 1994, Pearl Jam was on top of the world. Their 1991 debut Ten was a staple in every college student's CD or even cassette collection. Their second album Vs. (though I will always call if Five Against One because my tape had that as the title) was still making waves a year after it's release. Eddie Vedder was featured on the cover of Time magazine in August of 1993. Fame was taking it's toll on the grunge music scene. Kurt Cobain left in April of 1994. Back in the days when there were American rock bands, Pearl Jam were the kings of the charts. They recorded their third album in 3 cities and it took 3 drummers, but they put together one of the finest albums in Rock history. Vitalogy was different from what they'd done on their previous albums, yet they accomplished it very similarly to them too. Some of the songs on Vitalogy are timeless and still have the same effect on me today as they did in late 1994 when the album was released. The album was released on December 6, 1994. Between Christmas and New Year's of that year I took a road trip with [Sch]Metzger and Noveau Riche (sic). We started out wanting to go to Boise or some nonsense like that...we ended up going to the Grand Canyon with lots of stories on the way to and from. Two albums stand out from that trip the first being Vitalogy because it was new and fresh but also Jackson Browne's I'm Alive. What a combination, eh? Anyway, do yourself a favor and revisit Vitalogy this week. Here are two tracks to get you started.

Corduroy and Not For You links to mp3's. (Just right click and choose save as.)

And of course the album as well as the rest of the Pearl Jam catalog, and yes even the Jackson Browne album are all available in the iTunes music store.

Pearl Jam - Ten
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Pearl Jam - No Code
Pearl Jam - Yield
Pearl Jam - Binaural
Pearl Jam - Riot Act
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

Jackson Browne - I'm Alive

Pride (In the Name of Football)

If you are interested in playing some fantasy football, send me an email at mkinmotion[at]gmail[dot]com. I'm setting up a Yahoo league that will be simply for pride and for fun. I'm sure if you play, you have at least another league you're in, but you can always use more...

Let me know. Preseason starts Sunday.

One of the Things About The Bay Area

Something I appreciate greatly about the Bay Area of California is the amount of live music. Being the summer and as fall approaches there are a ton of musicians that are playing in nearby venues. I was reminded of this because I got an email from iRich about Grant Lee Phillips, which I didn't make it to, but also because I just got my Mike Doughty ticket in the mail today. I'm sure as the next few months go by, I will have plenty of opportunity to blog about the shows, but I thought I'd give a run down and then add my plea to the lord of the interwebs. Note: I'm using Google Calendar which is pretty sweet for keeping track of things like baseball games and shows.

August 12th (Saturday) - Death Cab for Cutie, Mates of State and Spoon @ the Greek Theater in Berkley. (World Party is also playing over in SF this same night, but I already had the ticket to these three bands who were all at ACL last year).

August 18th (Friday) - Ben Harper @ the Greek Theater in Berkley.

August 29th (Tuesday) - Boston Red Sox @ Oakland Athletics

September 6th (Wednesday) - Hothouse Flowers @ Slim's in San Francisco

September 10th (Sunday) - Mike Doughty @ the Independent in San Francisco

There are many more shows I'd like to get to. The biggest problem is there really isn't a central concert calendar for the Bay Area. Someone should develop one. I can go to KFOG's site and look at theirs, but it's not complete...so I've discovered a bunch of shows through MySpace, but it takes a lot of digging to find all the artists I might go see for $10-$20 or $50. I'm still looking at Roger Waters, Keane, Tom Petty, Van Morrison, DMB and Robert Randolph, and Willie Nelson, but they either require too much of a commitment from the wallet or the travel on weeknight. If you see someone who's playing in the Bay Area that I should go and see, here's your chance to get involved. I'm open to suggestions...and if you want to come down, over, up, around to see someone playing in the area, let me know and I might be able to help you out. Speaking of ACL, if you want to throw your money at me to attend, feel free to click the paypal button. I'd love to go, but ironically (considering last year I managed to make it down from Alaska) it's much more difficult to swing this year. I won't forget my camera when I go to these shows either like I did when I went to Strays Don't Sleep.

...Is Illuminated

I just finished watching this movie. Everything is Illuminated. It is pretty amazing. It is beautifully shot, beautifully acted, and overall a beautiful movie. I'll definately have to give it some more thought, but I'd say it's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. If you haven't seen it or if you haven't heard of it, I'm telling you, you need to see it. There are shades of La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful). Interesting themes and some fun parts too. I watched the deleted scenes, and although I would recommend you watch them, I much prefer the film without them. I'm sure I will have more to say about this film as I digest it a little more. But in the meantime, here is the trailer and a bonus MP3 of the DeVotchka song in the trailer (though it doesn't actually appear in the film, it's still a great song for it). Here's the song (file). Liev Schreiber directed it and wrote the screenplay based on the book. I'm looking forward to anything that Schreiber puts out in the future. If you're wonder who he is, you might know him from Kate and Leopold or the Scream movies or you might know him from The Sum of All Fears. Typically an actor, this is his directorial debut, and I'm hoping it's not his last.

Like All The Different People

"I want to be different, like all the different people."

Here's how it all happened for me. I'm admitting it...
In the summer of 1990, a friend introduced me to a few bands that I hadn't heard of. I immediately joined Columbia House and got something like 12 cassettes (yep, tapes) for a penny. This new music that I'd been introduced to made such an impression that I used my penny to get, among others:

They Might Be Giants - Flood
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk
World Party - Goodbye Jumbo
The Mighty Lemon Drops - Laughter
R.E.M. - Eponymous
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
The Cure - Disintegration
[I'm pretty sure I spent a few choices on Hair Metal, because I was still pretty deep into that stuff during that time too.]

No one really knew what to call it...College Music, New Wave, it wasn't until sometime later that the term Alternative Music came around. The Alternative music craze hit Portland and 970 the Beat came on the air. I still remember the few weeks leading up to their launch when they ran what I think was LaTour over and over again with a tag that the Beat was coming. When Nirvana's Nevermind hit the scene things changed quickly.

Why am I saying all this? There's a revolution that's happening today and I liken it to the "Alternative Music" revolution of 1989-1992. I'm talking about the Old Media vs. New Media debate going on. If you're not familiar, "New Media" types have dubbed blogs, podcasts, video casts, etc as "New Media" and consider newspapers, TV, traditional radio, etc as "Old Media" also sometimes referred to as MainStream Media (MSM). It takes me back to debates in the early 90's about Alternative music. At some point, and I could probably remember the exact moment with enough thought, being "Alternative" went from a good thing to something all the bands were fighting being labeled as. The problem with Alternative music and New Media is that both are trying to succeed, but their success will ultimately change them from Alternative/Indie/New Media to what they are/were rebelling against. I enjoy New Media, and I hope that as these outlets succeed, they remain true to the voices that cause them to be considered Alternative.